Nearly 300 workers have lost their jobs at a Welsh furniture manufacturer after the company collapsed into administration. Westbridge, which designed and produced sofas and upholstered furniture for high street and premium independent retailers, employed just under 300 people at its Holywell, Flintshire facility.
Chris Pole and Will Wright from Interpath were appointed joint administrators to Westbridge Furniture Limited and Belfield Leisure Limited, based in Derbyshire, last month. Their mandate was to keep operations running while exploring potential buyer interest and preserving jobs and sites.
The administrators have now confirmed that 297 staff have been made redundant. In a statement, they cited operational disruption, weak trading and the loss of a key customer as factors behind the collapse.
“Since their last update the joint administrators had maintained operations at Westbridge Furniture, while they completed outstanding work in progress and assessed interest in the business,” the statement read. “Without any viable offers for the business, production ceased on April 2 and the business progressed with a wind-up process. It is with regret that the majority of the business’ 297 remaining staff have since been made redundant.”
Affected workers will receive support from administrators, including assistance with claims to the Redundancy Payments Service. A small number of staff have been retained to help wind down operations.
Chris Pole, managing director at Interpath and joint administrator of Westbridge Furniture Limited, praised the workforce. “The team at Westbridge has shown exceptional professionalism in maintaining production while we explored options,” he said. “Regrettably, as no viable offers for the business were received, it was no longer possible to continue trading and we have had to take the difficult decision to close the business.”
The joint administrators have agreed the sale of Westbridge’s intellectual property and design rights to Whitemeadow, a sofa and upholstery manufacturer. Whitemeadow intends to engage with existing stockists of Westbridge products to maintain continuity where possible.
“The agreement to sell the IP and design rights to Whitemeadow preserves Westbridge’s range for retailers,” Pole said. “We wish the Whitemeadow team all the best as it embarks on a development programme to reintroduce those designs to the market.”
Administrators are continuing to assess possibilities for Belfield Leisure Limited, which also forms part of The Belfield Group.